[CLIP] She Invented a Career That Did Not Exist | Anna Caradeuc

**Anna Caradeuc** (0:00)
I think there was a bit of a rebellious spirit in there, to kind of remove myself from the 6e arrondissement where I grew up in. I didn't necessarily recognize myself. I don't consider myself an artist, but I think you can give me something, and I'll easily, I guess, imagine a world around it.

**Adrien Garcia** (0:15)
How do you work with a talent ? How do you approach each new case ?

**Anna Caradeuc** (0:18)
I've spent a lot of time with artists, and I've seen what creating looks like, and it's not. You don't just wake up and the ideas come to you because you're sitting at your desk.

**Adrien Garcia** (0:28)
I can ask you what the success means to you. Is it money ?

**Anna Caradeuc** (0:32)
I firmly believe that you should only show work when you're ready to show work. It was a bit of a fake it till you make it scenario, so all of a sudden I had to make decisions on behalf of well-established design studios. Now you have to convince people that they should pay attention in a world that's so saturated with information and content, especially a place like New York, where so many things are happening all the time.

**Adrien Garcia** (0:55)
What is so crazy about New York ? Why is it so intense for all those little Parisians who are watching us ?

**Anna Caradeuc** (1:02)
Many people have a love-hate relationship, but anytime I fly back into JFK, I'm like, I'm home again. No, but did it make me happy ? Yes.

**Adrien Garcia** (1:11)
Yes.

**Anna Caradeuc** (1:12)
They see the value of someone who is working on their own in Bushwick, making their work because they have a very unique vision.

**Adrien Garcia** (1:20)
Yeah. If you want to have a professional life, you cannot have a personal life, right ?
How did you make the jump actually ?

**Anna Caradeuc** (1:29)
I literally just jumped into the unknown.

**Adrien Garcia** (1:31)
Did you have a client already ? It was like...

**Anna Caradeuc** (1:34)
I had one client which was Ace Hotel actually again.

**Adrien Garcia** (1:36)
Okay.

**Anna Caradeuc** (1:38)
They followed you. Yes. The opportunity came about that Ace Hotel at the time was about to open a new location under a different brand called Sister City. So it was a different concept. And the hotel was on Bowery in Manhattan. And essentially they were very supportive of me going freelance and said, well, if you want to do the launch with us, we'd be happy to have you in the team. And we did that. And that was right before the pandemic.
So I jumped into freelance life not really having a plan, to be honest, but kind of hoping that things would go well.
And then the world went into lockdown.

**Adrien Garcia** (2:32)
And you've lost them or ?

**Anna Caradeuc** (2:34)
No, no, no. Well, yes, the hotel ended up having to close, obviously. But from that one client, then I already had a network of people. And by word of mouth, I was able to kind of start working with other people. And I kind of unintentionally carved a niche for myself where I ended up working with a lot of emerging designers. So often people who were coming out of either school or who were just practicing on their own at home or in a tiny studio, or some of them like in the same building that we just visited.
And I became this kind of figure that would help them find their voice. Not at all in terms of the work they produced, but more so in the way they presented themselves. And really advocating for them to find an audience. Sometimes to find gallery representations, sometimes helping them in creative direction for an exhibition. I mean, it was a very, very exciting role at the time, because I think I had a lot of creative ideas, but I don't consider myself an artist. But I think you can give me something and I'll easily, I guess, imagine a world around it.
And it kind of, this role really evolved through time and through the opportunities. And New York is so wonderful in the sense that when you do something and it gets noticed, and people want to know how it happened. And so I started seeing incoming requests from people, some that I knew, some I didn't know, some I respected.
And so I continued taking on these projects and it was really wonderful, actually.

**Adrien Garcia** (4:33)
So when was it ? This was during the pandemic, so like six years ago.

**Anna Caradeuc** (4:39)
Yeah, 2020, 2021